Manually move Server 2008 and Windows 7 Profiles (Users) directory.

As of Windows Server 2008 (and Windows Vista/7), Microsoft has decided to save all of the local profiles
under the directory 'C:\Users'. This is a far-cry better than the 2000/XP directory of 'C:\Documents and
Settings'. I would think this method will also work for a Windows Vista or Windows 7 machine, but I have
not tested.

However, I have since the early 90's setup all of my customers with a 'Users' directory on the server
as the root of where network users should save all of their work to server. It took me about 2 seconds
to recognize that having both a 'C:\Users' and 'H:\Users' was going to cause major grief and confusion.
For all of my customers, it would make much more sense if the local profiles were stored under the
directory 'C:\Profiles'. It is worth noting that the other new directory, 'C:\ProgramData' is fine, no
need to change that directory.

DISCLAIMER: Using this information, or any of this advice may turn your system into a puddle of
silicon. Use at your own risk! Perhaps it was an accident that this worked for me. This information
is intended for IT administrators, if you are unsure of any of these terms then you should probably get some
expert advice.

I deployed several 2008 R2 servers, using the following method to move the local profiles from the
C:\Users to the C:\Profiles directory:
Presumptions: logged in as administrator, not joined to a domain, no roles or services installed yet.
- Create a 'C:\Profiles' directory
- Edit the 3 registry values under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList containing
%SystemDrive%\Users to reflect the new %SystemDrive%\Profiles directory.
- Move all the directories, except 'Administrator' under 'C:\Users' to 'C:\Profiles'.
(you won't be able to move the Administrator directory while logged in as Administrator).
- Using Computer Manager, create a 2nd user, and make sure that new user is a member of the local
Administrators group. In this example, the 2nd user login name is 'TempAdmin'.
- Reboot the system, to release any locks on files in the Administrator profile directory.
- Log in as TempAdmin (you can optionally verify that the new TempAdmin user profile directory was created
under 'C:\Profiles').
- Optional: as a security measure, we will rename the Administrator account, to mildly help thwart
brute-force login attacks. In this example, I used Computer Manager to rename 'Administrator' to
'RootAdmin'. Since you can not be logged in as Administrator to rename the account, now is the
perfect time to do that.
- Move the Administrator profile directory from 'C:\Users' to 'C:\Profiles'.
- Optional: I prefer to have the profile directory name match the login name, so as I move the Administrator
profile directory, I would rename the directory to 'RootAdmin' to reflect the new name.
- Edit the registry value at
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList\-500\ProfileImagePath to reflect
the new profile directory location (and directory name if you optionally choose to rename the directory).
NOTE: the Administrator account under the ProfileList will always end in '-500'. But if you have already
joined the machine to a domain, you may have 2 accounts ending in '-500', one for local administrator and
one for domain administrator. I have had success moving both Administrator profile directories.
- Logoff as TempAdmin, login as RootAdmin to test, all should be fine.
- After you are sure RootAdmin can login without problems, you can optionally delete the User TempAdmin from
Computer Manager and the corresponding profile directory. (I will typically preserve the TempAdmin account
in the event the RootAdmin password should inadvertently get changed).

Feel free to send me feedback if you find any mistakes, of if this saved you a bunch of time (email
address on home page).